Raising the H-1B Cap – a Newfound Bi-Partisan Support
Within a few days of Bill Gates’ Congressional testimony on March 12th on the issue of keeping the U.S. competitive in a global market in which many countries gladly welcome the best and the brightest of the world’s highly skilled workers, two new bills to raise the H-1B cap reached the House floor.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) introduced the Innovation Employment Act (H.R. 5630) which would initially double the annual H-1B visa cap to 130,000 and then allow the cap to increase the following year if that cap were reached.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced a separate bill, the SUSTAIN Act (Strengthening United States Technology And INnovation Act), which would triple the H-1B cap, but only temporarily, in 2008 and 2009, to 195,000.
Gates testified: "We live in an economy that depends on the ability of innovative companies to attract and retain the very best talent, regardless of nationality or citizenship [but] the U.S. immigration system makes it hard to attract and retain high-skilled immigrants." U.S. firms will have no choice, said Gates, but to take advantage of opportunites in other countries with more favorable visa programs, such as Canada and Great Britian if the U.S. continues to cap H-1Bs.
The Giffords bill (and the Smith bill to a lesser degree) represents realistic and practical progress since it’s not realistic to think Congress will simply lift the cap altogether as it should. Congress has to do something to peg the cap to the needs of the marketplace—not some arbitrary fixed number that has no relationship to the needs of American businesses. Hiring H-1B workers creates jobs for Americans, it doesn’t take jobs away from Americans. Businesses don’t hire H-1B workers instead of Americans, they hire H-1B along with American workers. The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) recently published a well-publicized study that found that for larger S&P 500 technology companies, on average, for each H-1B visa requested by a company, overall American hires climbed an average of five employees. For smaller companies, the NFAP found that seven new American employees were hired for every H-1B application submitted. Here’s the published study.
Let’s hope this newfound bipartisan effort on H-1Bs results in a change in the law. Since comprehensive immigration reform doesn’t seem likely any time soon, if we have to accept reform in piecemeal fashion like this, we’ll take it.
